625 N.S. health authority staff off work for COVID-19 reasons Tuesday

Nova Scotia's health authorityreported 625 of its employees were off work on Tuesday because of interactions with COVID-19.

These include people who have tested positive, were exposed to someone in their household who tested positive or are awaiting results of COVID-19 tests.

There are fewer staff off work than there were last Thursday, when nearly 800 employeescouldn't workfor COVID-19 reasons.

But the new numbers come as the health authority introduced new protocolson Friday toallow some health-care workers to stay on the job andget back to work faster.

One of those protocols includes allowing employees who had a booster shot who were exposed to someone in their household with COVID-19 but not positive themselves to keep working,providing they adhere tocertain restrictions like wearingpersonal protective equipment at all times and taking a rapid antigen testat least once every 48 hours.

Here is the breakdown by health zone of employees off work for COVID-19 reasons:

• Western zone: 124.
• Central zone: 273.
• Northern zone: 91.
• Eastern zone: 140.

The numbers above total 628 employees. The total number of employees off workis 625, but the extra three reflect employees who work in more than one health zone.

The health authoritynumbers do not include staff at the IWKHealth Centre in Halifax. A spokesperson for the IWK told CBCNews that 175 staff are off work due to interactions with COVID-19 and there are fewer than five hospitalizations.